Company begins filing initial turbine applications
By Carlos Santos
Media General News Service
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Big wind turbines could eventually be producing electricity from
the high ridges of the George Washington National Forest.
An unnamed company has started the application process to build
131 of the massive wind turbines in the national forest in
Rockingham County and along the border between Virginia’s
Shenandoah County and Hardy County in West Virginia.
“We’re in the pre-application stage” with the
company proposing to build the turbines, Chris Rose, a spokesman
for the George Washington & Jefferson National Forests, said
Monday. Rose declined to name the company, citing its early
application status, which allows the federal agency to keep the
name confidential.
Rose said the company must first gain regulatory approval from
the Federal Aviation Administration because of the height of the
turbines, which would top out at around 440 feet.
Rose said the unnamed company could initially seek approval to
carry out “wind testing” at four or five sites on the
forest land in order to determine the possible wind power
available to create electricity. That approval, like other steps
in the process, would entail public hearings....
If approved, the turbines would be built along the crest of
Shenandoah Mountain on the western side of the Shenandoah Valley,
said Rick Webb, who operates the Web site called vawind.org,
which monitors the wind industry in the Appalachians.
Webb, a senior environmental scientist at the University of
Virginia, said the turbines would stretch for miles along the
ridge top, endangering bats and birds by the thousands.
“We have a regional problem here,” Webb said. “I
think we’re going to fill up the forested ridges in the
Appalachians with turbines if the wind industry has its way. The
electricity provided by the turbines is simply not worth the
environmental impact.”....
Ralph Grove Jr., a James Madison University professor who heads
the Sierra Club’s Shenandoah group, said, “Our only
stand on this is that the state should be more proactive on the
siting of wind farms to make sure they don’t go to
inappropriate places.”
A proponent of wind power, Grove said he believes that wind farms
should be built off-shore.
The state approved its first commercial wind farm last year.
Highland New Wind Development LLC plans to build and operate up
to 20 turbines on a Highland County ridgetop. Some Highland
County residents fiercely opposed the project, citing concern for
wildlife, such as federally protected bats and raptors, and
aesthetic reasons.
Carlos Santos is a staff writer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch
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